Heat flow problems and the resulting higher temperatures is a reoccurring concern in a wide variety of technologies. Excessive heat can damage spacecraft on takeoff or reentry, cause combustion engines to seize up, lead to meltdowns in nuclear reactors, and increase cooling costs in buildings. Heat flow is a particular issue for electronic devices. Too much heat can degrade or destroy a range of electronic devices, including integrated microcircuits, larger circuits on printed circuit boards, electronic storage devices, and lasers. As the size of electronic devices such as integrated microcircuits continues to be reduced, the surface area available to channel excessive heat from these devices is reduced as well. Accordingly, heat flow considerations can be a major issue in designing new products, and particularly in designing electronic devices.
A number of tools have been developed to analyze heat flow in devices. Infrared camera and thermal sensors have been used, for example, to observer and record heat information from physical structures. Computer modeling tools have been used to predict and simulate the flow of heat of both physical and virtual structures. Integrated circuit manufacturers, for example, may employ computer modeling software to predict heat flow for a new circuit from the design of that circuit, before it has even been manufactured.
While these tools have been useful in revealing heat flow in various devices, they typically provide no guidance as to how a device can be modified to change its heat flow. Instead, a user, such as a product designer, usually must rely on his or her personal experience or broad design guidelines to determine how the heat flow of a device can be improved. As a result, many product designers may overlook more efficient device modifications for improving heat flow, and instead employ less effective, more bulky, and/or more expensive techniques to reduce temperature in a device.